30 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



"As this business will be purely local to 

 Cuba and will be conducted in close con- 

 junction with the Cuban Government, the 

 office of the committee will be located on 

 the sixth floor of the Robins Building, 

 corner of Havana and Obispo streets, 

 Havana, Cuba. 



"Exports by the committee will be reg- 

 ulated from time to time by the United 

 States Sugar Equalization Board, Inc., 

 and will be dependent upon the national 

 requirements of the United States, due 

 regard being given to the necessities of 

 other nations. 



"The arrangements are made at the 

 earnest request of the Cuban Government 

 in order that it may continue its recipro- 

 cal trade relations with countries that 

 have in the past carried on commercial 

 intercourse with the Republic of Cuba. 



United States Sugar 

 Equalization Board, Inc." 



At the time when the contract covering 

 the purchase of the Cuban crop was made 

 it was the desire of Cuba to retain the 

 privilege of selling limited quantities of 

 raws to various countries which had for- 

 merly purchased supplies in that market. 

 At that time the war was still in progress 

 and was expected to last another year. 

 For that reason it was felt to be essen- 

 tial that the United States and the Allies 

 should be in a position to control the en- 

 tire Cuban output. With the changed 

 conditions that have followed the cessa- 

 tion of hostilities it is now considered 

 feasible and an act of commercial cour- 

 tesy to Cuba to permit sales of raws to 

 some of the countries with which Cuba is 

 in direct commercial relations. 



The committee appointed to deal with 

 this subject will make recommendations 

 from time to time providing for such 

 transactions. No definite limit has been 

 set as to the volume of raws which can 

 be handled in this way, but, on the basis 

 of the present situation, the Equalization 

 Board is reported to be unwilling to au- 

 thorize sales of more than 75,000 tons to 

 outside customers. If Cuban production 

 and the supply situation in the United 

 States and among the Allies make it 



possible, this authorization may be in- 

 creased later on to as much as 200,000 

 tons. 



METALLIC CLOTH FOR USE IN FILTRATION 

 PROCESSES 



One of the most serious problems 

 which beet sugar manufacturers of the 

 United States have to face in connection 

 with factory operating expenses is that 

 of the increasing cost of the cotton cloth 

 used in the Steffens house. To-day the 

 price of this cloth has almost reached a 

 prohibitive figure; by next year, if the 

 cost continues to mount as it has in the 

 year past, the price will have reached a 

 point where further use will be prac- 

 tically forbidden, and the manufacturers 

 will have to look about for a substitute. 



Searching for Substitute. 



The search for a substitute is, in fact, 

 already going on, and one of its results 

 has been to direct increasing attention to 

 the possibilities of the use of metallic 

 filter cloth, which has already been tried 

 to some extent in the sugar manufactur- 

 ing industry and has met with immediate 

 favor wherever introduced. 



Metallic filter cloth is not a new in- 

 vention, having been introduced on the 

 market five years ago by Ernest J. 

 Sweetland, the inventor of the Sweetland 

 filter press. It was devised, not as a sub- 

 stitute for cotton, but to do work that 

 could not be done with cotton cloth, viz., 

 the filtration of caustic materials, which 

 are so destructive to organic fabrics as 

 almost to prohibit their use. 



Trial of the metallic cloth demonstrated 

 that it filled a long-felt want in this con- 

 nection. It was found that in processes 

 where cotton cloth would last but a few 

 days, the metallic cloth would in many 

 cases last for years, thereby effecting an 

 enormous economy in material and a con- 

 siderable saving in labor, as well as a 

 large one in cost. 



Used in Chemical Industries. 



Its adoption by the chemical industries 

 was general within a short time. That 

 up to the present little attention has been 

 given to the possibilities of its use in 

 sugar manufacture has been due to the 



